how do you double a cheese-making recipe

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A friend of mine wants to sell cheeses on a large scale. He's been experimenting with several types of cheeses on a small basis, and is now ready to extrapolate to batch sizes for retail purposes. Does anyone know if when increasing batch size (for 100 gallons of milk instead of 1 gallon) how much do you increase rennet and culture? Are they increased proportionately or not. He went to a seminar at UVM and he doesn't recall them adding a great deal of rennet. I went to a seminar at Vermont Shepherd and while I don't remember the rennet proportions, I think the culture was increased proportionately. However, I'm not ready to bet the farm on that (or someone else's farm, for that matter).

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), December 06, 2001

Answers

Sheryl, according to my great grandmother's 1921 copy of USDA Bulletin 1191 ---Making American Cheese on the Farm, "Rennet should be added at the rate of 1/3 ounce or 2 teaspoons for each 100 pounds of milk, or enough to curdle the milk in from 30 to 45 minutes." I do not know what the strength of the rennet they would have been using then, but it may very well be comparable to liquid rennet used today. Certainly the process would be the same, so according to this booklet the amount added is proportional. I can't tell you anything about culture from this booklet because this is an uncultured reciept, but in general I'd say almost any amount of culture would work because when the bacteria start multiplying they do so exponentially. Might take a bit longer to get there, but you'll get there. If money is no object or he is growing his own culture, then throw in a lot, if not, back off on it and let it culture in the milk longer. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when making cheese, though, so there may be reasons for a correct amount of culture that I'm not aware of. Hope this helps.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), December 06, 2001.

Rennet works as a chemical, not a catalyst, so amounts should be increased proportionately. The bacterial culture could be cut down if used, I guess, as it will increase, but IANAE.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 07, 2001.

Sheryl, have your friend check the health dept. regulations about homemade foods for human consumption before investing large amounts of money. Some places the requirements are really stiff.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 07, 2001.

I am not sure about the doubling or more in cheese recipies, however, my guess would be that it would be safe to double. In fact i have doubled my soft chevere recipies with success. Making cheese is an art and also a chemesity process as well, meaning conditions have to be right for it to culture and create.

Mitch has a good point, in our experiences in VA there were a few folks who were shut down because they didn't comply with regs. It can result in a misdeamenor as well and having your equipment confiscated as well as in a case in VA. So cover yourself because business is business and its a cut throat world out there somtimes.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.


Doubling a cheese batch is quite simple, but when you start talking about increasing by a hundredfold, nothing's the same---not the rennet amounts, not the starter amounts, not the make time. Now I've never even attempted anything like a hundred gallon make, but the transitional amateur-to-commercial cheesemakers that post on the Yahoo Artisan Cheesemaking list, strongly suggest that you do not try to extrapolate an one gallon recipe to a hundred gallon recipe all in one fell swoop, but rather double the make, work out all the bugs (and there will be bugs!)and once that recipe's working well for you, double that, and so on.

Going directly from a home cheesemaking recipe to a hundred gallon make is a good way to ruin a hundred gallons of milk.

For technical advice on how to adjust the rennet and starter, try http://www.cdr.wisc.edu/CDRWebPa.nsf/MainView/A2C4CA0E11CDEA4A862568F C006CA3EF?opendocument&noframes=1 and look up the variety of cheese you're looking to make. Many of the cheeses discussed there have excellent technical notes, and even complete recipes. In most commercial cheesemaking recipes, rennet and starter amounts are described in percentages. For instance, most commercial cheese recipes call for 1-3% starter, depending on the cheese type. With the information on the CDR site you should be able to work out the amounts you need.

And if that's not enough, invite your friend to join the Artisan_Cheesemakers list at Yahoo. It has among its members some of the most successful farmstead cheesemakers in this country, and I'm sure they'd help. They're a generous lot.

To subscribe to Artisan_Cheesemakers-L, send an email to Artisan_Cheesemakers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

-- Julia (charmer24@juno.com), December 07, 2001.



Well, damn! If you would attend the meetings as a consultant, I could help you out! (Sheryl and I are in the same relatively small Maine town, and both reluctantly involved in the local politics). Anyway, I do not have all the answers, but could probably help a litle if you would be so bold as to stop by sometime! I know less than little about cheese-making, but I ain't stupid! Come by for a chat just for old times sake!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), December 07, 2001.

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